Iconoclast
by Ephemeral Sanity
Summary: Eve is a jaded princess, soon-to-be Queen who has lost faith in others. She had lived believing she was free but she was engaged to Raven of Velder and she had no knowledge of it. Now, the new Queen must navigate the nuanced world of politics and unravel a dark chain of mysteries, along the way she contemplates her feelings for the icy Raven Reve! ElsAi! Chung x ? EleRen!


**Haylo everyone! Breathless Abyss is reporting with a new story! *Is shot by the fans of her other three stories* Well recently, I have converted myself to Reve despite my fierce love of ElsEve and Reven and my disgust at how aggressive and rude many Reve supporters are towards Rena/ and or Reven. But, I decided to give it a shot and here we are! **

**Credits: Iconoclast**

**Pairings: Reve, ElsAi, Chung x ? (I'll let the reviewers decide) **

**Author: Breathless Abyss**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Elsword or I would have Eve clone Raven to end the fatuous Reve or Reven? Debate once and for all.**

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**Iconoclast**

**Contemplate Recent Events**

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The air was cool as it danced gaily, carrying the delicate scent of spring flowers. Highly varnished platinum strands glinted as the blazing sun played on them while they were dancing in the light breeze.

Standing in the middle of a verdant garden was a young woman whose silken white dress moved delicately in the breeze, calm and composed like its bearer's expression. The shocks of fuchsia that adorned the dress gleamed in the sunlight and the golden baubles she was bedecked with, glittered brightly, twinkling like a thousand stars.

Merrily perched on a salacious camellia tree was a lark, its music bright and cheerful as it serenaded all that were in the garden. The light melody nearly being stolen away by the rustling of the emerald leaves as the wind teased them.

Sighing, the young girl's eyelids fluttered open, revealing cold but elegant eyes of amber. She surveyed the garden with a detached interest, taking no more amusement in it than a child would take in a book about abstract philosophical concepts. To her, the rich-hued flowers of the garden were insignificant, and therefore not worth paying any attention to.

The entire meticulously kept gardens of the Alterian palace was a trivial mark of her prominent status, an unnecessary luxury, just a mere trifle in her eyes. Drawing her thin, powder-pink lips into a pensive frown, her hand floated up and rested on an adroitly plaited bun.

Today was a day of immense importance to her. On this day, Eve –Princess of the kingdom of Altera- would turn eighteen, and as a result, would accept her predestined position as Queen of Altera.

From this day forward, she would be required to use her wit to secure allies, her strength to protect her kingdom, and her self-control to attend an endless flurry of political meetings and royal dances and whatnot, while keeping her composure.

In short, what the tenacious young heiress understood; was that she would have to endure endless hours of tedium as diplomats and nobles droned on and on in bland monotones, as to what course of action was the most viable to take in order to improve the status of their kingdoms. Eve remembered the long hours her father spent cooped up in a locked room, being forced to endure all the mindless rambling of the politicians.

What a pity, what a travesty, what an absolute waste of time! No matter how lengthy or seemingly eloquent the politician's words were, no matter how elaborately thought-out the whole speech was, it was a meaningless charade that served no purpose.

To Eve, nine times out of ten, talking with a large congregation was just a ploy to delude others into thinking that something was being done, while really, absolutely nothing was achieved. People had a tendency to disagree and unwillingness to compromise. They were obstinate and short sided and they only thought about how THEY would benefit. Screw the commoners, and artisans, and merchants that gave the nobles they're own playground. Those mindless twits who ran the kingdom only thought about themselves and they're own desires.

There they lived luxuriantly clad in profligate outfits of sumptuous silks and their limbs encrusted in the purest gold regaled with glittering diamonds and smooth cabochons of star-sapphires and blood-red rubies. The ladies faces were perfectly painted, lending much-needed colour to their milky skin, and they smelt of lavenders with subtle vanilla accents. The men spent all their time hunting game for sport and drinking the finest ales that had been aged in cedar vats. How could people who lived such extravagant lives possibly relate to the plight of the common folk who had been impoverished by the bitter Hundred Year War that had only ended in the last decade?

Eve couldn't blame them though. It was a long-standing tradition, a hierarchal society plagued by corruption and ruled by nepotism. A person's aptitude held no importance, so long as you had the right last name, or knew the right people. Such a broken system allowed these airheads to assume powerful positions while being completely apathetic to the suffering of the poor and needy. They lived superficial and empty lives, thinking that they are "happy" while in reality, the "happiness" they speak of is a shallow materialism.

The young heiress could forgive them though if it that was the only issue. The thing that really galled her and made her blood boil was how the nobles pretended to care, while in all retrospect, they could care less. Every ball that had been hosted in Altera; the silverette had been approached by endless streams of powerful figures who had all asked her various favors that only a royal could grant.

The young heiress gnashed her teeth together as she recalled how they all wept their crocodile tears, while daintily wiping them away with crisp white linen handkerchiefs, edged in golden thread and perfumed with the delicate scent of roses. Each time they bemoaned the wretched fates of the orphans and the destitute citizens, pretending to be empathetic, and each time Eve had ripped their heads off using her acidic tongue.

"If you truly cared about these citizens, you wouldn't be here asking me to appeal to my father! You would be out there helping them and you would be willing to give them the clothes on your back if it meant making their lives more amicable! How dare you come to me crying while in all reality you're just a heartless leech! Who do you honestly take me for? A fool?"

Even before she had been fully immersed in the complex and intricate world of politics, Eve had already created several powerful enemies who would oppose her every movement. Her father had always warned her to keep her thoughts to herself, lest she'll awaken the sleeping dragons. Yet Eve was resolutely opposed to sacrificing her own beliefs in order to placate those twits who already received everything they wanted.

But now, the tenacious young heiress would have to pay the price for her standing by her own virtues. Though the silverette was sure her own people would support her, the recently established world council would be sure to give her endless grief. Eve was not against the general idea of having a sizeable group of diplomats meet and consult each other before making imperative decisions, why she remembered the horrors of the war just as vividly as the adults. Yet there was a slight bug in the system which therefore rendered it defunct and just another limitation.

Whoever appointed half of the people on the council ought to be put on trial for corruption. Eve had carefully observed the council members, meticulously calculating their actions and how best to get along with them, and all her data has told her this much.

Three-fourths were generally incompetent, two-fourths were corrupt, one-fourth was just plain stupid, and the remaining fourth nobody ever took seriously (Because really, no fool has ever listened to a wise man before). Yet now Eve would have to be working alongside them.

Further souring the silverette's already dour mood was the fact that she was engaged to the prince of Velder. That would not have been pleasant admittedly, but Eve was not at all unreasonable despite popular belief. What really incensed the young heiress was that she had only discovered the engagement today. After she had told her father all about her recent trip to the crippled kingdom of Hamel, which was now largely under control of Velder, with a small portion of the kingdom belonging to Altera; the tenacious heiress had mentioned an encounter with a cerulean-eyed boy she found intriguing.

Abruptly, upon hearing it, her father had cut her off and told her not to even consider it, for she was engaged to Raven of Velder. Needless to say, what had resulted afterwards was not pretty. Eve was well-educated in politics and all the intricate nuances that came with it, and she understood full well that royalty sometimes married for convenience alone. She had heard all of that throughout her childhood and was grateful that she had escaped such a fate and could choose her own destiny.

Unfortunately, all that had been a farce and she was now another bird, encaged by the fickle entity known as fate. In all the years Eve could remember, she had never had an emotional meltdown on a scale of that size, even her father was shocked. In the span of three minutes, the calm-almost emotionless- and poised daughter he had known had transformed into a wild beast in a bat of an eyelash.

However it would not do well for the royal family if the soon-to-be queen was seen in this emotionlessly disheveled state, so he had sent his daughter out into the gardens to cool off and collect herself before he would even CONSIDER letting her back into the castle.

Eve's porcelain cheeks flushed a vivid red, clashing garishly with the powder-blue markings on her face as she contemplated the incident. Perhaps she should've been more composed; however her father had absolutely no right to withhold such a vital piece of information from her!

Eve had never even met Raven, yes she had heard of him, but it was only vague rumors, none of them particularly heartening. She had heard that Raven was a cold and aloof figure who was apathetic and disinterested in the on-goings. Such a man did not hold any appeal to the silverette. If she was going to be encaged by a man, she wanted someone who captured her heart and possessed a burning, fiery heart that stoked the smothered embers of her own.

She wanted someone who had a vested interest in his kingdom and was active in the international reconstruction effort. Eve's privileged status has enabled her to have all the finest things possible, so why should her husband be any different?

A wistful sigh escaped her lips as she stared at the eggshell blue sky, the flawless sapphire cabochon titivating her head glaring brightly as the sun was mirrored in it. The serene blue reminding her the whole time of those cerulean eyes.

Who could possibly captivate her like so?

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**And that concludes the first chapter of Iconoclast! It was fairly short but with school and whatnot, I will warn you, updates for this story will be as slow as molasses. And no… the ending might've hinted at Cheve, but Reve is the main Eve pairing, this will be a Reve pairing. Meanwhile, I'm debating whether Chung should go with Ara or Rena. I'm leaning towards Ara, but Rena seems nice to… GAAAH! *Smashes head into the wall* MidnightPaladin was kind enough to give me advice, so I tried to incorporate it into this chapter; I think I improved on the semicolons, however… *Sighs* Yeah… boring chapter :L Well, remember to R&R for criticism and love! Flamers of the story and flames directed towards Reven will result in me going full-blown BITCH mode on you and having your review deleted, continued flames will result in me canning the story. **

**This applies to Reven as well as the story FYI, because I do support that story and there are reasons far beyond Rena looks like Seris, just as there's more to Reve than the simple fact that Eve is a Nasod and Raven has a Nasod arm. **


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